| • The importance of being accepted and loved as one is | |
| • Overcoming shame and guilt through forgiveness | |
| • Understanding the depth and width of God's love | |
| • Recognizing one's value and worth in God's eyes | |
| • Living a life free from fear and doubt, and instead living with freedom and confidence | |
| • Embracing one's identity and purpose as created by God | |
| • Miracles and hope in difficult circumstances | |
| • A broken heart and soul can be restored and reborn | |
| • Greater things are still in store for us | |
| • Pastoral announcements: | |
| + Youth coffee at the Verhoof home | |
| + Registration open for youth camp | |
| + Baby blessing gathering for five baby girls born in the community | |
| • Announcements about upcoming events | |
| • Ascension Day worship service on Thursday at 7 p.m. | |
| • Call to stand and receive the greeting of God | |
| • Worship and adoration offered to God's holy name | |
| • Song lyrics referencing God's greatness, power, and faithfulness | |
| • Lamentation hymn expressing gratitude for God's unchanging nature | |
| • Prayer and worship | |
| • Faithfulness and provision of God | |
| • Confession and seeking forgiveness | |
| • Longing for God's presence and restoration | |
| • Reflection on life as an altar to God | |
| • Praise and adoration of God's greatness | |
| • Biblical references and scripture reading | |
| • Worship and prayer in community | |
| • Prayer or worship song with repeated phrases of devotion and praise to a higher power | |
| • Introduction by Mike, deacon at the church, mentioning his name and role | |
| • Discussion of New Ground Ministries and its mission to support new ministries and provide coaching | |
| • Mention of two congregation members serving on the National Committee for New Ground | |
| • Financial giving opportunity mentioned | |
| • Recitation of the Apostles' Creed | |
| • The speaker leads a worship service and mentions the importance of believing in God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. | |
| • The speaker invites children aged three to grade four to join them at the front for "Kids Corner". | |
| • Some girls are absent because they're attending Gems Camp. | |
| • The speaker shares about a play they saw over the weekend, which was a musical adaptation of Frozen. | |
| • They ask the audience if anyone has seen the movie Frozen and if they have favorite characters. | |
| • Hans is mentioned as a character who does something mean in the story and is booed by the audience when he reveals he doesn't actually love Anna. | |
| • Discussion of a character named Hans and how he is hard to love | |
| • The concept of loving people who are difficult to love | |
| • The children's blessing and prayer time in worship | |
| • God's desire for humans to be reconciled with Him before being able to reconcile with others | |
| • The Holy Spirit's role in shaping believers through life's circumstances and their own resistance to it. | |
| • Expressing gratitude for God's love, blessings, and sufficiency in their lives | |
| • Asking for forgiveness and openness to God's plan and purpose | |
| • Requesting guidance, wisdom, and discernment for leaders and those affected by poverty and hunger | |
| • Praying for healing and comfort for those suffering from illness, loss, and grief (including John Koenig, Judy Dykstra, Ryland and Laura Benny, and Grace Vanderdeen) | |
| • Seeking help to be living examples of kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control | |
| • Discussion of prayer for families in mourning | |
| • Request for healing and restoration for those suffering | |
| • Nomination process for new office bearers | |
| • Prayer for Pastor Chris' message | |
| • Reading from Romans 15:1-13 | |
| • Reflection on disunity and fostering arguments in groups | |
| • Romans chapter 15 is being read and discussed | |
| • The text picks up mid-story or mid-stream, referencing previous conversations | |
| • Community is encouraged to bear with the weaknesses of others and not seek their own pleasure | |
| • Examples from scripture are used to illustrate this point, including Christ's own humility | |
| • The goal is for believers to have one mind and voice in glorifying God | |
| • Christ accepted by God to bring praise to Him | |
| • Christ's role as a servant of the Jews on behalf of God's truth | |
| • Fulfillment of promises made to patriarchs and confirmation for Gentiles | |
| • Praise and glorification of God among Gentiles | |
| • Isaiah's prophecy of the root of Jesse and hope for nations | |
| • Joy, peace, and overflow with hope through trust in Christ | |
| • Maturity in the gospel builds unity around the gospel | |
| • Chapters 14 and 15 discuss what it looks like to mature in the gospel | |
| • Contrasting language of weaker or stronger brother/sister used by Paul | |
| • Definition of maturity as allowing the scope of the gospel to pervade every aspect of life | |
| • The gospel changes everything, including perception and experience of reality | |
| • Paul has been discussing "disputable matters" with the listeners | |
| • The conversation is based on 1 Corinthians 14:1 and Romans 14 | |
| • Disputable matters include food, holy days, wine, marriage, celibacy, circumcision, baptism (infant vs believer), women in church office | |
| • These are not necessarily controversial conversations, but rather areas where scripture appears to offer multiple interpretations | |
| • Paul's advice is to accept those who hold weaker faith without quarreling over disputable matters. | |
| • The concept of unity and its relationship to maturity | |
| • Unity is not just about being at the same spot or having the same opinion, but about moving together towards a common goal | |
| • Maturity is a journey, not a destination, and it involves growing and learning together | |
| • Unity in the gospel is built around the teachings of Jesus and is not defined by agreement on everything | |
| • A clear understanding of what gospel unity looks like is needed to navigate the path towards maturity | |
| • Discussing the importance of unity in a community | |
| • Explaining that gospel unity is key to transforming lives | |
| • Mentioning four things about gospel unity: it bears up the less mature, grows towards hope, glorifies the road map together, and should be prioritized by strong individuals | |
| • Addressing technical issues with audio feedback and gain levels | |
| • Returning to the discussion of gospel unity and its significance | |
| • Unity is built through bearing and building each other up | |
| • The word "edification" means to build one another up in Greek | |
| • Connections between words and their meanings can be found in the original language of the text (Greek) | |
| • Mutual edification is a key concept, referring to the act of building one another up in peace and mutual support | |
| • The word "edifice" and its meaning as a large building or structure | |
| • Building someone up, edifying them, and growing in strength and faith | |
| • Responsibility of more mature individuals to grow in their faith and help others | |
| • Every individual's responsibility to be a disciple and make disciples | |
| • Maturing Christians helping other Christians mature | |
| • Youth leader experience with 30-year catechism teacher | |
| • Gospel unity and community growing in faith | |
| • Young girls at Gems camp being counseled, volunteering, and leading | |
| • Helping others mature in their faith | |
| • Maturity in a short period of time | |
| • Infants and faith development | |
| • Promise of helping children grow in faith | |
| • Physical growth vs spiritual growth | |
| • Adult faith development and discipline | |
| • Maturity as a Christian through discipling others | |
| • Church growth through gospel unity and discipleship | |
| • Discipleship | |
| • Mentoring vs coaching | |
| • Faith maturity levels and development | |
| • Example of older man studying Bible in McDonald's with younger person | |
| • Church maturing towards faith | |
| • Relationship between mature and immature believers | |
| • The importance of bearing with the weaknesses of others | |
| • Growing in maturity through relationships and community | |
| • The role of the Holy Spirit in growth and unity | |
| • Serving others, especially those who are less mature | |
| • Unity in the gospel and looking out for one another's needs | |
| • The Bible refers to "neighbors" in various contexts, often emphasizing a broader definition beyond just people who share the same faith | |
| • Jesus' story of the Good Samaritan illustrates an example of neighborly love towards those outside one's own community or faith | |
| • The gospel can change relationships with people who believe the same as you and with those who do not yet believe | |
| • Being united in the gospel demonstrates what it means to be neighbors, showing love and compassion to all | |
| • Living for those outside the reach of the gospel | |
| • Paul's statement about living to please others | |
| • The importance of wanting good for others and their joy | |
| • Motives for doing good, with emphasis on not having ulterior motives | |
| • Supporting Newground ministries, but emphasizing that it is not just about supporting a specific organization | |
| • The true reason for doing good, which is simply pursuing the other person's well-being | |
| • maturity involves knowing what is hard but good | |
| • discipline and correction are necessary for growth | |
| • faith in one's life often requires difficult decisions | |
| • maturity comes from having a holy discontent with present reality and being motivated through hardship or trial | |
| • The importance of following Jesus and living a good life | |
| • Christ's example in enduring suffering and bearing insults | |
| • The concept that Jesus took on human failings, sin, and punishment for us on the cross | |
| • The idea that we are healed through Jesus' wounds and death | |
| • Reference to Hebrews 12:2 and its mention of joy being set before Jesus during his suffering | |
| • The joy of the Christian life is found in doing good, even when it's hard | |
| • A gospel unity is achieved by a group of people working together to pursue what God defines as good | |
| • Sacrificing for others and putting them first is a key aspect of this unity | |
| • True believers will mourn alongside those who mourn and come alongside each other in times of darkness | |
| • Gospel unity is built on maturity | |
| • Maturity in the gospel requires growth and development | |
| • Gospel maturity involves being taught and instructed by God's word | |
| • The life of gospel unity is one of constant maturing and growing | |
| • Constantly seeking to be in God's word and searching the scriptures is essential for this process | |
| • The Berean church's method of testing scripture to verify its truth | |
| • Importance of enduring and persevering as Christians | |
| • Connection between spiritual discipline and discipleship | |
| • Difficulty of being a Christian in today's world | |
| • Need to reclaim the identity of spiritual discipline and discipleship. | |
| • The scriptures provide encouragement and show the power of God and His victory | |
| • Even when things seem against us, God is for us | |
| • Reading the Bible teaches that joy comes in the morning after weeping has passed | |
| • It also teaches us to trust in God's word spoken directly to our hearts and imagination | |
| • This provides hope and encouragement even in hard times | |
| • The speaker uses a personal experience from a church baseball game to illustrate this point | |
| • Encouragement through scripture | |
| • Saturating oneself with scriptures for growth | |
| • Unity glorifies God, but can be misused as a hammer to force conformity | |
| • True unity is made visible in how we experience disagreement, showing willingness to suffer for others' good. | |
| • Jesus prays for unity in John 17, a kind that gives witness to who God is and brings glory to Him. | |
| • The church should be one as the Father and He are one, demonstrating trinitarian theology. | |
| • Trinitarian theology emphasizes oneness while maintaining differentiation within the persons of the Trinity. | |
| • Our unity transcends disunity and distinctives, including them and making it more beautiful. | |
| • God is glorified by this kind of unity. | |
| • Additionally, there's an imminent sense in which God is glorified by unity that takes a form of praising Him. | |
| • The scripture verse in Romans chapter 15 indicates the goal for unity among people is to bring praise to God. | |
| • This goal has been present throughout history, as evident from various scriptures mentioned. | |
| • The unity of different groups, including Gentiles and Jews, glorifies God by making much of His greatness and what He has done. | |
| • Gospel unity also brings glory to God in the sense that His people are united together in praising Him. | |
| • Maturity in the gospel builds unity around it, leading to all people everywhere praising the Lord. | |
| • Joy, peace, and hope come from trusting in God | |
| • Maturity brings joy and peace through righteousness | |
| • Unity is hopeful and expressed in our unity | |
| • The work of God and the Holy Spirit changes everything | |
| • Praying together as a unified community | |
| • The concept of Jesus Christ as a living hope | |
| • Desperation and turning to heaven for help | |
| • Experience of forgiveness and salvation through Jesus Christ | |
| • Victory over death and the grave through Jesus' resurrection | |
| • Praise and thanksgiving to God for redemption and freedom | |
| • Encouragement and blessing for those embarking on a journey of faith | |
| • Blessings of God | |
| • Do not be afraid | |
| • Go in peace and unity | |
| • Love and serve the Lord | |
| • Prayer repetition with "Amen" |